Sewing Project: The Perfect Smock

I love this pattern! It is the art smock from Little Things to Sew, by Oliver + S.

I made this for a child's birthday,
but here is Toucie modeling it for me :)

front view

back view

it has such great coverage

and i love how the bias tape binding on all the seams
defines the lines of the garment and brightens  it up!

All wrapped up for gift-giving...
with a yo-yo slipped into the pocket for an extra treat :)

Heavy Baby

Here's what I've been doing late at night :)

A young expectant mama asked me to construct this Heavy Baby from a kit that she purchased here. She intends to present it to her toddler when the new baby arrives.

This 16 " Heavy Baby is filled with 4 pounds of millet that is scented with lavender essential oil. It was an amazingly delightful sensory experience to work with. The pattern was very simple and straightforward and required only basic sewing skills. It involved a combination of hand-sewing (making the head and attaching the head and hands to the body) and machine stitching (sewing the body and clothing).

I enjoyed making this doll so much that I made a second, smaller 12" one to keep and share with Toucie :)

Special Handwork....Tooth Fairy Pillowcase

We've dropped everything around here for some urgent handwork...Toucie has her first loose tooth and it could fall out at any second now...we need a special tooth fairy pillowcase.

We have a very special pillowacase that that my grandmother made for me when I was small. It has sweet embroidery and a tiny pocket stitched on where one can stash one's tooth in case a tooth fairy should come in search of a trade. I used it faithfully as a youngster, and so did Naya, Sodie, and Mado when they were small. Well, it is Toucie's turn and the pillowcase is nowhere to be found. Time to whip something up!

I thought I would zip up a little case out of linen, add a pocket, and maybe a bit of embroidery like my grandmother did, but Toucie had grander visions. After a peek in the scrap box, she was committed to a plan that involved color and variety and a lot more work than mine. So we turned it into a homeschool handwork project. Toucie tore strips of favorite fabrics and ironed them all smooth. We laid them all out side by side.

I stitched all the strips together and pressed all the seams flat. Toucie used marks that I had drawn on the fabric to cut a neat rectangle. This made a 4 inch border for the pillowcase. I pieced this together with a blue fabric and constructed the case.

Next we chose a bit of fabric for the tiny pocket and stitched that on by hand.

And here is a not-so-good photo of how it turned out...but wait a minute...

Toucie had further plans...she made a pocket all by herself  and wanted to stitch it on the other side of the pillowcase.

Can you see her little pocket there above the bunny? (I think she incorporated some packing tape, too, but who am I to question the methods of an artist?).

So now we're ready. Oh, and guess what I just found?

November Handwork...Heavy Sandbags

 

During handwork this week, Toucie and I made half a dozen 5 pound sandbags to use during circletime. Right now we incorporate them into our movements as we sing about hauling corn and meal to and from the mill, but they have endless other uses for Toucie to discover.

There is not much to them...they are just like giant beanbags (filled with sand instead of beans). To make the project child-friendly we took it slow...worked 2 days to complete them. I divided the steps of construction like this:
1) I measured the fabric, Toucie tore it into the rectangles needed
2) I stitched the pairs of rectangles together on three sides to make a "pillowcase", Toucie turned them all right-side-out
3) Toucie filled each "pillowcase" 3/4 full of sand, I stitched them closed as she completed filling each one.
4) I put away all the materials and supplies, Toucie swept up all the stray sand with her wisk broom.
Voila! Done...

I like to have alot of ideas in my pocket for indoor movement and exercise as the cold months approach...playing/working/building/pretending/stacking with soft, safe, heavy sandbags (great to pair with beanbags!) are some ways to get muscles moving indoors :)

Looking ahead to Spring...a small quilt

A couple of quick peeks at one of my current works-in-progress.

Sweet, sweet bunnies, mice, chipmunks, birds, and turtles frolicking among the spring-green grass, flowers, and toadstools. I love this fabric and have been holding on to it for several years trying to decide what to make out of it. It seems that a quilt, using big squares that show off the little animals, will allow me the most opportunity to look at the fabric. I have to hurry and whip it up...not only to get it ready before the Spring Equinox, but just to have it done before Toucie is too grown up (and I lose my excuse to play with juvenile fabrics!!)


Fabric is Michael Miller 'Woodland Squares', 'Woodland Stripes' and 'Woodland Critters'.

WIPs...

So, I've been working on my list ...and I've got a few works-in-progress to show for it.

For starters, I've taken a few steps towards the goal of a handmade rug (#29 on my list). My intention is to make a big, substantial area rug (maybe 4x6 or 5x7), but I'm starting off small...this is a bathmat pattern:

 

Here's what I've got so far:

This is a just going to be a garter stitch rectangle knitted holding 4 strands of Peaches & Cream worsted together on size 15 needles, but it was originally inspired by a pattern from the book Mason-Dixon Knitting (It's page 82..."Absorba, the Great Bathmat") I'd like to use this little rug in front of Toucie's play kitchen, so I chose variagated yarns that I thought would result in a Waldorfy kind of "peach blossom" effect when blended together. The colors are pooling and the effect isn't what I intended, but it seems quite lovely anyway, so I'm forging ahead.

We also have #7 (a flannel quilt) in progress.

The top is fully pieced and I just need to track down the right fabric for the backing. I'm leaning towards using a twin-sized cotton flannel sheet, if I can find the right color. This quilt is an odd size..I didn't want it to be fully twin-sized, I wanted more of a snuggle-on-the-couch size, but I'd like to be able to spread it on a bed without it being way too small.
I LOVE this fabric...it is Folksy Flannels by Anna Maria Horner. I ordered 2 "small bundles" (a small bundle is a random assortment of 6 fat quarters) and got a dozen different patterns, all of them gorgeous. I wanted showcase the fabric as much as possible, so I settled on big 10x8 rectangles (the odd size was so that I would have no wasted fabric).

 

Don't those juicy colors just make you want to smile?

I had two lonely little squares left over after piecing my quilt top. Just the right size for a doll blanket...a reversable one at that!

Here is another project...this one is finished and only on the WIP list because I want to make more!

Upcycled silk long johns for Toucie made from a thrifted adult-sized silk knit shirt and shawl.

The pants are made from the sleeves of the shirt . The top is made from the body of the shirt with the sleeves and trim being made from the shawl :